Lippi the latest to be sucked into crisis

Marcello Lippi is coming under increasing pressure to step down as Italy's coach just five days before his much fancied squad depart for the World Cup, as Serie A's swirling corruption scandal rapidly grows ever deeper, wider and more embarrassing.

On Friday, Rome magistrates interviewed Lippi after wiretaps suggested he may have permitted the business interests of Luciano Moggi, former Juventus general manager, to dictate which players were called up for Italy duty. After a three-hour grilling as 'an informed witness' - Lippi is not under official investigation - the former Juventus coach appeared to be in the clear after investigators pronounced themselves satisfied with his responses.

But sources inside the police in Naples claimed Lippi is himself a client of GEA World, the sports agency at the heart of the scandal. GEA represents more than 200 players, as well as 29 coaches. The sons and daughters of big names in the world of Italian football and finance are on its board, including Moggi's son, Alessandro. Lippi's son, Davide, is also a GEA agent. Marcello Lippi has flatly contradicted the Naples accusations and is quoted in the Italian press as saying: 'I don't have an agent and I never have had one.'

When Lippi was appointed Italy coach two years ago, he publicly tried to quash allegations of a conflict of interest: 'I've told Davide not even to think that I'll ever pick any of his players.' Yet of 63 players called up for Italy duty, nine have been GEA players, including Giorgio Chiellini, who is represented by Lippi's son.

Previously the corruption scandal had been only mildly embarrassing for the 56-year-old Lippi. Wiretaps revealed Moggi senior and Antonio Giraudo, Juventus chief executive, joking about Lippi's love life: '[Fabio] Capello [Lippi's successor at Juventus] only ever talks about work and tactics,' they are heard laughing. 'Lippi only ever talked about boats and women.'

The GEA allegations intensify the pressure on an increasingly isolated Lippi. The officials who appointed him have already been forced to quit and his former club face relegation - and possible bankruptcy - for financial and sporting irregularities. A television poll yesterday found that 85 per cent of viewers want him to step down, a call echoed by one of the nation's leading newspapers.

Leaks reveal that investigators' files describe Lippi as playing a 'subordinate' role to the disgraced Moggi senior, whose complicated web of contacts was this week revealed to have included not only GEA and Italian FA officials but also Fiat chiefs, bank chairmen and even government ministers. The 'Moggi system' influenced everything from referee selection, to player transfers, and even television journalists.

Aldo Biscardi, a TV presenter as famous for his ranting style as for his poorly tinted red hair, has been caught in the scandal's net after tapes revealed Moggi's overarching, behind-the-scenes involvement in the eponymous cult football programme, Il processo di Biscardi Trial (The Biscardi Trial)

Il processo, which last year successfully fended off a slander charge by memorably describing itself as 'a joke programme, like a football bar', is nevertheless a fixture in the calcio household, having been aired for 26 consecutive seasons, always with Biscardi at the helm. In an emotional final programme last week, Biscardi vehemently denied being unduly influenced, but he quit the next day.

Moggi himself has not been seen since he left the headquarters of Naples magistrates early last week when he is said to have broken down two hours into a six-hour interrogation. His last comment to the media was just minutes after Juventus had lifted their twenty-ninth Scudetto last weekend at Reggina: 'I don't have the strength to speak,' he told TV reporters. Voice breaking and choking back tears in red-rimmed eyes, he added: 'They've killed my soul.'